TORONTO.
March 20, 1997. Galleon Software today announced the release of
eMerge, a stand-alone Macintosh application that lets you create
an e-mail form letter, customize it automatically for everyone on
your mailing list, and send it directly to their Internet mail servers.

You
can use eMerges built-in tools to create a list of names,
e-mail addresses, and other variables; or import all the information
you need from existing FileMaker and 4th Dimension databases.

One
of Galleons early beta testers used eMerge right away to send
product upgrade announcements to their customers. For a long
time wed been looking for a product just like this,
said Ted Leckie, the president of Sienna Software. On the
practical side, we needed our messages to include each customers
serial number and mailing address, but we also wanted the messages
to have that personal touch.

Since
eMerge was named the Internets Cool Tool of the Day, the people at Galleon Software have
been taken aback by the response. People are using eMerge
in ways wed never thought of, said Colin Biggin, president,
and one of the developers of the product. Theres a professor
in Georgia who is using eMerge to send grades to his students, weve
sold copies to online businesses who are using eMerge to pull people
to their websites, and of course weve been using eMerge to
promote itself.

eMerge
boasts a sophisticated mailing engine, but Biggin claims that the
bulk of the development effort went into creating the user interface.
We wanted something that people would understand right away.

An
eMerge campaign consists of three simple parts in a
single window: the message header, the form letter, and the mailing
list. But what sets eMerge apart from other bulk mailers is that
you can insert your own variables pretty much anywhere in the message.
Heres an example:

Dear
<firstname>, weve just released the latest version
of <software>.As a registered user, you can upgrade
to version <number> for $<cost>.

People
are still surprised by how well this simple form of direct marketing
works. Weve had trouble keeping up with the orders,
said Ted Leckie. Weve even had people thanking us for
our nice letter!

Galleon
Software is a Canadian developer of desktop communications software
for small, specialized markets. eMerge is a trademark of Galleon
Software. All other products mentioned in this release are the service
marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.